China: faced with the shortage of drugs, pharmaceutical companies requisitioned

A woman carries a bag full of medicine as others line up outside a pharmacy in Beijing on December 13 to cope with the wave of infections.

© Ng Han Guan/AP

Text by: Stéphane Lagarde Follow

2 mins

China lacks fever medicine.

The sudden relaxation of the Covid epidemic prevention and control strategy two weeks ago triggered an explosion in contamination.

In an attempt to meet the demand, pharmaceutical companies have been requisitioned.

Publicity

Read more

With our correspondent in Beijing,

The mobilization is reminiscent of that of the end of winter 2020, when China lacked masks and protective equipment against Covid.

At least a dozen pharmaceutical companies have been " 

 " of key drugs, in other words 

.

Some assembly lines may be affected by the lack of labor linked to infections, but the rest of the production apparatus is mobilized.

Some state-owned drugmakers have shifted to 24-hour production. A day-and-night race against shortages for 160 subsidiaries of China National Pharmaceutical Group (Sinopharm), 

.

► To read also: In China, the solidarity of Internet users in the face of the shortage of medicines

Discontinuation of exports

Boxes of foreign antiviral treatments, in particular those of the American Pfizer, began 

on the platforms, this Tuesday, December 20, at astronomical prices.

But that is not enough, because if the production is secure, the logistics do not follow and the city pharmacies have been robbed.

The surge of infections sparked real panic, and compulsive shopping at the start of the wave of contamination.

According to

, the Chinese today consume 400 million tablets of Ibuprofen per day.

And this is just one example: for other anti-fever and painkillers, some online pharmacies show several days of delays in order to be able to respond to orders.

Result: in addition to an acceleration of production, China has interrupted part of its exports and intensified its purchases of drugs abroad.

The Chinese diaspora is also particularly mobilized and tries to send their relatives the medicines they can no longer find in China.  

► To read also: 

Newsletter

Receive all the international news directly in your mailbox

I subscribe

Follow all the international news by downloading the RFI application

• China

• Coronavirus

• Health and medicine

• our selection